ADVENT
11.
John 6: 16-71
So the flesh profiteth nothing, doth it?
And the work of God is belief?
They are still in the storm, John Gospeller:
children wizened with hunger,
wrecked by bombs and fires,
blinded with tear-gas,
sickened by water and air.
And you say
God’s work is belief?
Oh yes, John, I am
murmuring against your Jesus.
How dare you condemn the Pharisees?
At least their rules were clear.
ADVENT
10.
~John 6:1-14
Why multiply loaves and fishes if
your Jesus disparages miracle?
If he was sent from heaven only
to teach the elect, why make him
show off to the crowd? And
worse—why have him
set up these expectations?
Bread does not increase,
fishes decrease because
of the hope for miracle
that does not come no matter
how hard the believing.
And what are we
among so many?
ADVENT
9.
~John 5
Move away from what you know.
Can you?
Bread and wine,
comfortable and magical words,
candles, flowers,
Victorian hymnody,
linens arranged just so.
Just so.
Walk away
from stained glass,
stone towers, bells.
Stop being helpless.
Today is the holiest of days.
Stir the waters
in the pool of mercy.
Be a burning light
ADVENT
8.
~John 4:45-62
Not in the center
where things are certain,
not at the center
where power holds.
Signs and wonders
are not the signs.
You must decrease.
Come down
ere the child dies.
ADVENT
7.
~John 4:1-44
Worship is wind,
for God is wind.
Draw water
from the ancient well,
and who will drink?
What is truth?
It does not spring
beneath your feet.
ADVENT
6.
. ~John 3:22-35
You must know
the secret
to see life,
have life,
to escape
the wraths of God.
You must know.
See, hear.
Receive.
Decrease, decrease.
Advent
5.
~John 3:1-21
You have heard the chant,
answered the call,
drunk the water made wine.
All that was yours has been stripped away.
And now you are in a dark room.
Your feet root in the earth,
water rises up to your neck,
and from somewhere, a wind.
You shiver there, alone.
And when you think
you might have died,
a light shines in the darkness—
you are surrounded by lamps,
there is a lamp in your hand,
and the circle presses around you
and you are part of the circle,
robed in white.
And no one outside the circle,
and no one outside the room,
is saved.
ADVENT
4.
~John 2: 12-25
No one need tell—
We are houses of merchandise,
years in the building,
hard to empty
yet easy to fall.
When all at last is driven,
when no standing stone is left,
what remains we are.
ADVENT
3.
~John 2:1-12
Between inbreath and outbreath—
you know the place.
Water enters grape,
the skin
bursts
and yeast
blooms.
The servants
see.
It is not the time.
It is the
time.
ADVENT
2.
~John 1: 19-51
Where is what is true?
Visions of ladders and lambs and birds,
voices from the desert and the sky.
This is the Kingdom of Metaphor.
You who have no guile—
come and abide awhile.
I have decided to read the Gospel According to John during Advent. It was my favorite gospel until I was in my late 40s, when I decided that it was anti-Semitic (It is–there’s no way around that) esoteric and exclusive, and that it probably has little to do with the actual life of Jesus of Nazareth (very likely true). I’m trying to read it again for the first time in more than twenty years, this time not as theology–it is the most “theological” gospel–but as poetry, written by a 2nd century poet trying to make sense of what Jesus was all about. Let’s see how long I can keep going. . . .
